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We started Lifeline because it was obvious that there was a gap
in the healthcare system.
People would arrive at their local hospital and there would
be no good way to move them from their local hospital
to a tertiary care hospital where they needed to be.
But Lifeline was the trailblazer.
[SOUND] >> ERT is this an emergency?
>> When you call 911 and the fire department or
the police get there you deal with them and
you say boy that was great they came out, but
nobody ever thinks about the guy that sent them to you.
You're what puts everything in motion,
sometimes I think they would be amazed if they knew
what all went into getting them here.
Most of them they're in a hospital bed somewhere and
their doctor says, oh,
we're gonna get you transferred to Hopkins.
And there's a crew there.
And they're on their way.
But I think if they walked through and
saw this operation, they would be amazed at all the people that
had a hand in getting that transfer completed.
>> We transport people from outside hospitals,
back to Hopkins.
And we essentially bring the Hopkins skills and
expertise to the bedside of the patient, wherever they may be.
We're able to maintain that ICU level of care for
those patients going outside of the unit.
>> We have a really systematic approach.
We do things in a certain way because it's been proven to be
safe that way.
The number one priority is place to safety.
>> On average I help transport about 15 patients a week.
When we're transporting a cardiac patient I want
to initially make sure that this patient is stable,
their vital signs are stable,
I want to know why I am transporting them to Hopkins.
>> We see patient potentially on the worst day of their life.
They're scared, they're frightened, they're in pain.
It's our job to make them a little bit more comfortable with
the environment that we're putting them in.
>> Anything that you can do to bring down that anxiety
level helps tremendously.
If they feel comfortable with you,
that's gonna make the situation 100 times better.
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>> When we make the decision to transport a patient out of this
hospital, it's typically when we were not able to
provide the services here that they might need, but they
could provide it in tertiary care centers, such as Hopkins.
Although Hopkins is not that far away, time is always an issue,
and you have to take in account what's going on in Baltimore.
And many of the Lifeline staff are critical care nurses and
have critical care background caring for
these patients in the ICU before they move to the Lifeline world.
And they truly have an exceptional understanding of
what the situations are.
I mean these guys are incredibly cautious.
They dot all their I's, they cross all their T's.
As they're taking the patient downtown.
>> We're limited a lot in ground transports with water and
bridges and traffic obviously,
cuz we're in an urban environment.
If we go to Salisbury,
at [INAUDIBLE] and pick up a patient, we can have that
patient back here in 35 to 40 minutes, depending on wind.
Whereas it may be probably at least a better part of the two
and a half hour trip by ground.
We bring speed and efficiency to the prehospital care that
the patients receive, and know for the community itself, for
Baltimore specifically,
John Hopkins provides a really excellent medical resource and
that makes me very proud to be part of that organization.
>> When you talk to people about a transport system,
some people will focus on what kind of helicopter do you have?
What kind of ambulances do you have?
And that might be important.
But what's most important, truly, is the people who are in
the helicopter, people who are in the ambulance,
the people who are moving the patients through the hospital,
because they're the people that make a difference.
So I'm particularly proud of the way we seem to be able to
have in our system in on our team.
The kind of people who can make an enormous difference to our
patients everyday.
And they're just good at what they do.
They're just good at what they do.
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